AthosionWarrior – I don't like being evil... much lol. I am sorry for making you wait for this update though. I'm glad you're enjoying the story, thanks for the review.

Jammeke – John and Elizabeth really are cute, I'm glad you liked the explanation for Elizabeth's behaviour and her theory on the cloud. As for Teyla working with Kolya now, well you'll see, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 35

Teyla walked through the corridor of Ronon's ship toward her quarters, today was the last day she would be spending aboard this ship. Kolya was having her transferred over to his ship. She wouldn't be surprised if she ended up back in her cell and she had no intention of making this easy for Kolya.

She hadn't seen Ronon since the Admiral's call yesterday. He'd been forbidden from even seeing or talking to Teyla ever again. She'd probably seen Ronon for the last time and the thought hurt a surprisingly large amount. She ignored it as she approached her quarters ready to pack up all of her belongings.

"Emmagan," an annoyingly familiar voice called and she turned around to see Kolya heading in her direction.

"What do you want?" she questioned, her tone was more subdued now but she made sure he'd hear the undertone of disgust.

"Just checking up on my latest acquisition," he stated and she resisted the urge to hit him. She would no longer have Ronon there to protect her when she did something stupid. There was no doubt in her mind that when she was on his ship he would not be as kind to her as Ronon had been. There was no sense in antagonising him too much, she was just going to have to get used to how Kolya did things.

"I have to pack," she told him before turning around and heading to her quarters. She picked up the suitcase she'd been given to pack her things into and dropped it on her bed. Now that she actually had to do it the task seemed harder. She didn't want to do this; she didn't want to go with Kolya, not least because he was an ass. She still had several hours; they weren't leaving until later that night. She guessed Kolya wanted more time to taunt Ronon, she really hoped he antagonised Ronon into murdering him.

She moved to sit on the chair in the corner of her room and picked up the book she'd been reading for the last few days. Ronon had got it for her last week when she finished all of her other ones. She doubted Kolya would get her anymore when she finished this one, if she was even allowed to keep it.

Elizabeth sat at the table listening to Rodney babble on about something. He was using so much technical jargon that he'd lost her somewhere in his first sentence and now she was just nodding her head where she felt it was appropriate. Carson and Laura were in the kitchen as Carson attempted to teach his wife how to cook without burning the food, it probably wouldn't last.

Marcus and John walked into the room and Marcus took a look at Laura who was standing in the kitchen with a knife in hand and food in front of her. His face fell "Please tell me she isn't cooking dinner."

"If you're gonna complain you can get in here and do it yourself," Laura replied waving the knife in her hand around and Carson had to throw his head back to prevent getting hit by it.

"Laura love," he began as he grabbed her hand and moved it back down to the vegetables she was supposed to be chopping. "The only thing I need you to cut is these."

Laura gave him a minor glare before going back to chopping the food in front of her. Marcus moved to sit at the table where he was a safe distance from Laura and less likely to lose an appendage. John took up the chair next to Elizabeth and made quick work of shutting Rodney up with a simple 'stop talking McKay' for which Elizabeth was immensely grateful.

Just as the group sat down there was an annoying beeping coming from Rodney and they had all learned to recognise what it was. The scientist picked up the device from his belt as he stood up and headed through to the bridge. John, Elizabeth and Marcus followed and she vaguely heard Carson stopping Laura.

"You're helping me;" he informed her "This is why you burn every meal you try to cook."

Elizabeth smiled and shook her head as she walked through to the bridge. Rodney was already in the chair at sensors when she walked in and John was in the pilot's seat. "We're detecting a discrepancy," Rodney told them unnecessarily. "There's an Alliance planet not far away, Caladen."

"That's less than two days away," John stated as he quickly altered their course.

"Well, it was nice while it lasted," Marcus said as he turned and left the bridge followed closely by Rodney.

"You ready for this again?" John questioned as he stood up and took a few steps toward her.

"Do I ever have a choice?" she returned and smiled slightly. "I feel better now than I have done in a while. I haven't had to mentally fight the cloud for over two weeks, I'll be fine."

"Yes you will," John replied as he stepped forward and kissed her, she responded happily.

"Will you two quit making out on the bridge get down here," they heard Marcus shout and Elizabeth smiled against his lips. Things really didn't seem so bad right now and whilst she knew it was going to last about as long as Laura's marginally improved cooking skills, things didn't seem so bleak.

"Come on," John said after a moment "Let's go see what damage Laura has done to Carson and the kitchen in our brief absence."

John took her hand and they walked back into the kitchen. Marcus it seemed had made the mistake of insulting Laura at a close distance. She was now pointing the rather large knife at him and it was dangerously close to his face. Marcus's eyes followed the waving implement fearfully as she yelled at him.

"Cooking is not my strong suit alright but if I hear one more comment from you about my lack of talent I'll be putting my new chopping skills to so some use," she told him with a meaningful glance at Marcus's lower body and Marcus stepped away from her and retreated to the relative safety of the table.

Carson was stood behind Laura looking somewhere between amused and dismayed. John wondered if he'd only just realised he'd married a loon, he kept the comment to himself though since Laura still had the large knife in her hand. Elizabeth was clearly resisting the urge to laugh and he figured only females could find the threat of men losing vital parts of their anatomy funny.

He decided to stay near the table with Rodney and Marcus while Elizabeth walked over to the kitchen counter where Laura had just finished chopping stuff and finally relinquished the knife to Carson.

It was almost time to go; she'd be leaving Ronon's ship in less than half an hour. She took a look around her quarters; there were still a few things that needed packing. She'd gathered more belongings than she'd realised during her stay here. The door chimed and she figured it was Kolya coming to collect her early.

She sighed and walked over to it wishing she could just ignore him and pretend she wasn't here. She pressed the button beside the doors to open them and was shocked to see Ronon standing on the opposite side.

"I need to talk to you," he stated.

"If anyone finds out you're here…" she trailed off and then stepped back to let him into her room. They were more likely to get caught if they were standing out in the corridor. She relaxed a little once the door had swished closed and blocked any prying eyes that might have been about. She knew for a fact that Kolya had been keeping tabs on her all day. "You should make this fast, Kolya will be here for me soon."

"You're taking this well," he said as she continued to pack her things.

"Am I allowed to take it unwell?" she questioned sarcastically, placing the last few items of clothing in her bag and reaching for the last book that needed to be packed.

"I guess not," Ronon replied and there was silence as Teyla zipped up her bag and dropped it by the door. She looked around the room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

"I think that's everything," she stated and silence once again filled the room.

"I don't want you to go," Ronon finally said and Teyla froze for several moments before she turned to look at him.

"What?" was the only semi coherent thing she could muster up; she really had no idea how to respond to that.

"I don't want you to go," he repeated and it seemed to have the effect of bringing Teyla back to her senses.

"Ronon, I don' have a choice. We did something stupid, we got busted and now we're paying the price. Why did you have to come here, why did you have to say that when neither of us can do anything about it?" she questioned angrily. She'd been dealing with this fine until now, until Ronon walked in and said that. It was the closest either of them had ever come to admitting there was more to this, whatever this was, than simply a way to blow off steam.

"It wasn't stupid… maybe a little stupid but I don't regret doing it and I don't want you to go," he admitted and Teyla once again struggled to find her words. She had not been expecting this, hadn't been prepared for it.

"It doesn't matter, there's nothing we can…" she began to argue but he cut her off.

"We can leave," he stated and Teyla was shocked into silence for far longer than she would have liked. She stared at him unsure if he'd actually said what she'd heard and unable to believe he'd mean it.

"Leave, what are you talking about?" she asked.

"We'll just go, my shuttle is in the docking bay, we can take it and just go," he explained.

"We… we can't," Teyla tried to argue.

"Yes we can, this is still my ship and the majority of the crew don't know what's going on yet. We can walk into the docking bay together and most people won't even look twice," he told her and she continued to stare at him.

"You'd be giving up everything, you've worked hard to get where you are and you're just going to give it all up on a whim?" she questioned incredulously.

"This isn't a whim, I've been thinking about this since yesterday. I know what I'm giving up and I know what I want," he said and Teyla found herself still staring at him though the uncertainty she was feeling about this idea was quickly dieing.

She nodded her head before she'd even registered she was doing it "Okay."

Ronon crashed his lips against her own and pushed her back into the wall behind her. The kiss was desperate and passionate but there was something else there this time that hadn't been there before. She decided not to identify what it was, knew it would frighten her if she did so she simply banished all thought from her mind and kissed him back.

"If we're gonna do this we have to do it now," she said as they pulled apart slightly "Kolya will be here for me any minute."

"Then we'd better go," he said moving away from her and grabbing her bag from near the door as they left. They walked down the corridor as quickly as they could without drawing attention to themselves. Teyla kept her eyes open for Kolya who she knew wouldn't be far away. She was more than a little relieved when they arrived at the docking bay.

"Sir," one of the officers acknowledged.

"Teyla and I have a mission; we'll be taking my shuttle. We should be back in a few hours," Ronon informed him and the officer nodded and allowed Ronon and Teyla to pass unhindered. They walked up the ramp at the back of Ronon's personal shuttle and he tossed her bag next to an identical one that was already there. She looked at it curiously for a moment before following him through to the front and taking the co-pilots chair.

"You knew I'd say yes," she said as she sat down and Ronon continued to manipulate the controls in front of him, she heard the sound of the ramp in the back compartment of the ship close and the engine start.

"No, but I hoped," he replied without looking at her and she smiled slightly and leaned back in her chair as the shuttle took off and flew out into space. Ronon wasted no time in engaging the hyperdrive and within seconds they were clear of the two Vernai Command vessels… and Kolya.

TBC